Fridae

If you’re a horror fan, it’s likely that you’ve been fed on a diet of Asian horror for the past 15 years. Directors on the continent have been making horror and action/wuxia films that outclass anything Hollywood can serve up but even so, there comes a day when enthusiasm wanes. That day has apparently come for the makers of Four – yes, the same makers who brought us the actually scary movie anthology 4bia a couple of years ago.

But what on earth would four jaded horror directors get together and do? Why, another horror anthology that attempts to break the routine gore and scares in the genre, of course. We suspect that the four returning Thai directors must be fans of Rod Serling’s pulpy and suspenseful Twilight Zone series. While all four shorts here have a supernatural theme, the focus is very much on the suspense and the macabre and often unexpected twist – which often doesn’t rely on the purported supernatural theme of the story.

The four shorts are almost a classic example of a Twilight Zone anthology episode – a gathering of friends determined to solve an internet urban legend about a deadly phone call; an unpopular boss who must dodge a series of deadly gifts from a “shop for people you hate” to survive his promotion; a duo of armed burglars haunted by a vengeful ghost; and a dutiful Chinese family watching over the corpse of their family patriarch. That’s a science fiction story, a psychology thriller, an almost traditional ghost story, and a comedy for you.

Visually, all four directors must have taken a vow to spurn jump cuts, false scares, and loud sound effects. Ultimately, Four is a formal writing exercise to prove a point that horror isn’t about the CGI and the props or the horror and the gore. If you believe the directors, it’s not even about the horror but all about the cross between basic storytelling and social commentary.